from the LP Safe As Milk, Buddah Records, 1967The man the world knows as Captain Beefheart (born Don Vliet) has one of the more peculiar and thought-provoking timelines in the greater world of art, and surely more has been written about him than his lack-of-popularity would seemingly afford, but that’s always how it is for the critical darlings: too strange to be popular with the masses, but too extraordinary and far out for the music writers & scene cognoscenti to pass up. Beefheart’s singing sounds like the mutant, genetically modified offspring of a Bull Mastiff and Kathleen Turner, and I have to admit, a lot of his music is just too deconstructed and surreal for my taste, but this first proper album of his contains a number of relatively catchy tunes. I’m drawn to the title of this song for obvious reasons, but the tune itself really chugs along effectively and I often find myself helplessly possessed by the groove, doing the frug like a crazed go-go dancer.
